New Retail Food Waste Data Reveals More Than Waste Tonnage
A new ReFED report shows the percentage of retail food waste in the U.S. has dropped in the past three years, but not as much as had been thought.
A new ReFED report shows the percentage of retail food waste in the U.S. has dropped in the past three years, but not as much as had been thought. While the updated metrics (showing a .3 percent reduction in retail food waste) don’t reflect the improvement anticipated, based on trends in preceding reports, this latest figure and other findings are good news. Or so attests Jackie Suggitt, director of Capital, Innovation & Engagement at ReFED.
At the very least the data unveiled on ReFED’s Insight Engine in April 2023, gathered with enhanced methodologies, tells the number crunchers that the industry is getting better at measuring. And that’s the first step to figuring out how to tackle the problem.
The Insight Engine update replaces old survey information with more comprehensive and current data from Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment (PCFWC) signatories. PCFWC is a public-private partnership between governments and large food corporations –Walmart, Sodexo, Kroger, and Fresh Del Monte to name a few—along the West Coast. They are looking to halve food waste in their region by 2030.
This report digs into a deeper retail base. The signatories telling of what’s happening within their operations represent just over 50% of the market share along the West Coast.
“What’s really exciting is that it provides three years of new data that now gives us the first real-time, year-over-year comparable data set in retail,” Suggitt says.
PCFWC signatories receive in-depth analytics based on the food waste details they’ve been taught to collect. They get industry benchmarking data to compare themselves to peers and identify their strengths and weaknesses. And custom roadmaps, generated from findings, help them assess food waste reduction strategies specific for their business.
One new puzzle piece sheds light on a long-time mystery: what’s been happening with surplus or wasted food that fell off the radar and was written off as going to an unknown destination. The “unknown destination” lot has decreased from roughly 30% to about 21%.
“What’s exciting about this metric is we know where that 9% went now. Landfill rates went up. But it probably was not because [retailers are] throwing away more food. Rather they have better visibility into what was always there,” Suggitt says.
Some of the newly tracked tonnage ultimately went to destinations beyond landfill, whether to food rescue organizations, or sent for animal feed, biomaterials processing (meat rendering), anaerobic digestion, or composting, among stops.
ReFED, part of the PCFWC leadership team, makes sense of signatories’ data using a mass balance approach. This entails asking them for the total dollars of food they purchased and unsold food rates. Then they look to see where the unsold amount went—a reporting approach that has taken some retailers time to wrap their heads around.
Initially, PCFWC participants got a lot of guidance to understand how and why to measure. But by now they are building internal structures to be able to collect data and use it to identify their biggest problems.
For Albertson’s a huge realization is that weight data along the supply and fulfillment chains is especially hard to track. The grocery chain is leveraging an old, familiar tool to gain new insight.
“Retail stores rely on UPC data for sales transactions. It is logical to use that database to track unsold items, including donations to food insecure neighbors. And including inedible food diverted from landfill. Subtracting sold and unsold item weights from overall retail data makes it easier to track items sent to landfill. And reducing landfill weight reduces store operating costs and promotes resource conservation,” says John Bernardo, director of Sustainability, Albertsons Companies.
Albertsons extracts product data from UPC codes scanned at check stands, e-commerce, and DriveUp & Go transactions. And then tracks unsold items with handheld scanners when designating for donation. But the operation takes other steps, from incorporating weight data obtained from food waste diversion vendors to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to inform ordering and production.
The discovery stage is ongoing, with PCFWC pilots helping inform creation and implementation of targeted strategies. They range from trials of upcycling to employee engagement campaigns to help drive site-specific food waste reduction. And they include pilots of AI-based ordering technology with participation from tech companies Afresh and Shelf Engine.
Today, even leading national grocers rely on manual processes for ordering and inventory management, creating an abundance of waste in grocery store back rooms and lost shelf life at home, says
Matt Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of Afresh.